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THE PROBLEMS OF EMBEDDED INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND EMBEDDED KNOWLEDGE Journal of Information Technology Management Volume XVIII, Number 2, 2007 38 Journal of Information Technology Management ISSN #1042-1319 A Publication of the Association of Management THE PROBLEMS OF EMBEDDED INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND EMBEDDED KNOWLEDGE: IMPLICATIONS FOR SYSTEMS INTEGRATION AND KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT MARK W.S. CHUN PEPPERDINE UNIVERSITY Mark.Chun@Pepperdine.edu RAMIRO MONTEALEGRE UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO AT BOULDER Ramiro.Montealegre@Colorado.edu ABSTRACT This research investigated the effects that embedded information systems and embedded knowledge had on a systems integration project following a corporate merger. Our study focused particularly on one aspect of knowledge – the organization of knowledge. The contribution of this research is the presentation of four dimensions for which knowledge is organized: knowledge routinization, knowledge acquisition and release, knowledge dispersion, and knowledge hierarchy and delineation. We provide multiple attributes within each dimension to aid in the identification of the characteristics that make up each dimension. The framework was derived from the existing body of literature on knowledge management, while the attributes were identified through an in-depth field study of a merger between two telecommunications firms that together formed the fourth largest long-distance company in the United States. The research closely followed the merged firm’s project to integrate the information systems and the knowledge of two original procurement departments. The project provided a rich source of evidence for how embedded information systems and embedded knowledge can influence a firm’s ability integrate information systems and manage knowledge. Keywords: knowledge-based view of the firm; organization of knowledge; case study; knowledge management; information systems integration; mergers, acquisitions and alliances. INTRODUCTION Firms have spent a lot of time and resources implementing information systems (IS) to aid in the organization, distribution, and management of knowledge. Since the early 1970’s and 1980’s, IS departments have enthusiastically fulfilled requests to develop IS applications that support oftentimes autonomous functions and manage knowledge across a diverse range of business operations. The result is often knowledge that has little to no consistency or integration across the firm. This poses difficulties when they attempt to use it to achieve specific business objectives [26, 24]. To further investigate these problems of knowledge management, we decided to study how embedded knowledge affected a